The Ultimate MMO
by Coover55
Summary: When our main character Johnathan decides to play the VRMMO called Sword Art Online, he discovers that it's not as great as he thought it was going to be.. it's better. The thought of never coming out of this amazing game was even better than the game itself. He fights to end it all.. not to get back to real life, but to have the glory of the victory.. but can he do it?
1. Chapter 1 - Log-In!

**Author's Note: Yo, guys! First time trying out a fanfic, so I hope I can do well with this. I also hope to update whenever I can, but when "whenever I can" is really all depends. Anyway, thanks for checking this out, and enjoy!**

_Finally.._ I thought. _I'm finally going to get into possibly the worlds best game._

The year is 2022. I walk up the long, steep hill to my house in my favorite country in the world, Japan. I may be American, but even I admit that the U.S. has a lot of problems. I love Japan though, so when I was offered the chance to get a free trip to Japan for one year of school (I've had the highest grade in my school since kindergarden), I, of course, agreed. The first thing I did was buy as many language programs as possible so I could learn Japanese, and about 4 months later, I was fully fluent and on my way to Japan. But anyway, that's not the point. Wait, why am I thinking about all this again? Maybe because I'm so excited to be able to be here for this game I just bought, I was thinking about how it happened. I don't know.

I got to the top of the hill, then turned right, and walked just a bit further to my house. I walked in, took off my shoes, and gave a quick greeting to my transfer hosts. They understood what was going on completely, as I've been talking about how hyped I was about the release of the brand new game called _Sword Art Online. _It's a "new" type of game, a _VRMMO, _as they call it. That's because it uses technology that allows us to do a _Full Dive_ into the game, intercepting all of our brain waves and instead sending them to our virtual avatar. I hadn't thought technology like this was even possible, so the concept of being able to do this was amazing. In fact, I loved the idea so much, I spent all the money my parents gave me for suveneirs on the _NerveGear _(the helmet that allowed us to make the _Full Dive_) and SAO itself.

I ran upstairs, dissapointed in myself for having taken my time to get home. I was already four minutes too late for the launch. Although I'm at the top of my class, every year, every class (including P.E.), I'm a big gamer, so to be late to something like this seemed like a crime to me.

The first thing I did was quickly change from my school uniform to something more comfortable. Unfortunatley, I couldn't jump straight in-game, either. First, I had some homework (a 2,000 word essay and some English work, which were both going to be a breeze). After that, I had to do as much research on the game as possible before I jumped in. I already knew exactly how MMO's work, of course, but I needed to know the specifics for SAO. The game may have only just launched today, but there were one thousand people who participated in the beta, so I knew I could get some info.

Two hours later, my homework done, I decided I had learned enough about the game, and that I was ready to jump in. I shut down my computer, left my homework neatly organized on my desk for the hosts to see, and got in bed. It was now 3:27 PM, exactly two hours and twenty-three minutes after the official launch. By this time, I was really angry about not having been in-game already, but a guy's got to do what a guy's got to do, and in this case, it was homework.

I put on the helmet and waited until the very next minute, 3:28 PM. Then, I said loud and clear, "_Link Start!_". I was welcomed to the game by my vision going completely blank, replaced with a white screen. Some messages popped up, notifying me that all my senses were properly in-check and being taken control of.. just, a little better-sounding than that. It just showed "_Sight: OK. Touch: OK._" etc. etc. blah blah blah. The next thing up was the terms of use. I always skip over these things, so I did just that. When I came up to the account creation, I typed in my usual account information; _Username: Coover55. Password: ***************._ I didn't see an e-mail field, so I just pressed _Create Account_. The game notified me that I can't use numbers in my username, so I just used _Coover_ instead. I was told everything was okay, and then heard a smooth-sounding female voice say "_Hello, and welcome to Sword Art Online,_" accompanied by a wall of text in front of me that said the same thing, minus the "_Hello, and_" part. The next thing I saw was the background do a cool fade-in effect to a new image, showing a black background and stars. The screen showed the character creation options. I spent a good twenty minutes making my character, and came out with something looking as close to me as possible. Medium height, medium weight, blonde-haired, blue-eyed 15-year-old, with a face that wasn't too bad to look at, if I do say so myself. I continued on to the game, skipping the introductory to MMO's for new MMO players.

When my vision came clear again, I was standing in the middle of a gigantic, circular area with a clock tower in the middle. Marble walls with reddish ceilings, and some kind of polished, white, stone floor that wasn't marble, but similar enough for me to just think _f**k it, it's marble. _I flex my muscles to make sure that everything is responding correctly, and once I'm satisfied that it is, I decide to move on out. The first person I saw was a tallish black-haired skinny guy around my age, so I asked him where I could find a shop.

"Well, you can find one right over there," he said, pointing towards a smallish building. "But you're gonna have to get some money first. We don't get starting money in SAO. You know what I'm talking about, right?"

"Yeah, I know what you're talking about." I responded. "Thanks. I just didn't think we'd get a sword automatically, just money, like usual. Where's the nearest hunting grounds?"

"Just follow that path as far as possible. After a little while, you'll walk out of the city and into the plains. That's your hunting grounds."

"Thanks."

So, I continued on to the hunting grounds. About an hour later, I decided I had killed enough boars to have the money I needed, so I headed back to where the store was and sold all the drops I got, then blew all my money on a brand-new sword and a set of leather armor. Surprisingly, I had exactly enough afterwards to buy a hotel room. That sounds weird in a video game, but all hotel rooms in this game have extra storage, so I can store my stuff in there until I managed to find the bank and get an account in it. Besides, once I log out, I want to log out away from everyone else.

I bought the room, walked in, dropped off my stuff in the room storage, and layed down on the bed.

I sighed.

_Man, I love technology._


	2. Chapter 2 - Realism

**Author's Note: **Cool, just posted this yesterday and I already have two followers! I guess you like it, huh? Well then, without further ado, I give you the second chapter: "Realism".

I had just been pondering how I should spend the rest of the gaming day when I saw a pop-up in the corner of my screen. Before I could even wonder what it is and click on it, it showed a message on my screen in Japanese, saying:

**"WARNING: Opening ceremony is about to begin. All players will be teleported to the town square in the Town of Beginnings. Please finish what you are doing ASAP. Thank you for your attention."**

Well, I guess that answers that question. The message disappeared just as quickly as it appeared, and ten seconds later I was teleported to the Town Square, as promised. Everybody seemed confused as to what they were doing here.. huh? Had they not seen the message? Maybe not. So, I told a few people that it was the opening ceremony and they calmed down and started to spread the word, but it didn't get far enough before something started.. well, happening. I don't really know how to explain it.

_**(Alright, guys, this is where I put the speech about the game, but anybody reading this will probably know it anyway, so I won't waste my and your time with it. For those who don't, basically, the maker of the game came in and announced that the log-out had been disabled, and the only way to get out was to beat the game. Oh, did I mention that if you die in the game, you die IRL? Yup, pretty messed up, amirite?)**_

As he disappeared, I still couldn't beleive my ears. As everyone was in a frenzy and trying to get out as soon as possible, I stood still. A real _Death Game_? That's ridiculous! I know people want a realistic game, but come on. Seriously?

**But..**

This was just as scary as it was awesome. This game isn't just a Virtual Reality game.. there's no Virtual about it in my eyes now. This.. this is true reality. The most realistic game of all time. The Ultimate MMO. As I came to this conclusion, my open-mouthed, state-of-shock face turned into a smile. Not only am I in the best, most realistic game ever made in all of history.. I'm actually living it. The possibility of dying doesn't scare me at all.. if anything, it makes me all the more pumped up to fight through the end. It gives me more adrenaline to fight on. I can't feel pain in this world, so I can truly fight to the very end.

_**Yeah, Johnathan's just a bit messed up in the head. But so am I. In fact, he's almost got the exact same personality as me. We're all a little crazy, after all, right? Right?**_

I put my index finger and thumb together and made a swiping motion downwards, like I've seen a few other people do to open the pause menu. Sure enough, I was greeted with a nice little window with a few options. Ignoring everything I didn't need, I went to Inventory and checked that I had got the _gift _everyone else had gotten. Sure enough, I saw _Gift Box _in my inventory. Opening it put an item named _Hand Mirror. _I pressed my finger to it and a small hand mirror automatically appeared in my hand. So, I did the most logical thing to do: I looked into it, and saw straight face in it that hid my extremely happy feelings right now. All of a sudden, I had light surronding me.. a moment later, it all disappeared. Looking back into the mirror revealed myself, but the real me. It wasn't that different from my avatar, as I've said before.. the only thing I got wrong was the eye color and the nose. The nose was a bit big on my avatar, and the eyes were a shade darker blue than my real eyes. Everything else I got spot-on.

Throwing the mirror to the side, (where it faded out and presumably went back to my inventory) I walked out of the Town Center and continued back to the hunting grounds to get some more kills and look for as many quests as possible. I've thought this exact same line before, I know, but I can't help but walk out with a big smile while thinking of how much I truly love technology.

**Well, hope you enjoyed Chapter 2! It would've been out yesterday had the internet not gone out as soon as I finished writing it ;_;**

**See ya later today!**

**-Coover55**


	3. Chapter 3 - Koi the Blacksmith

**Author's Note: Wow, I think I actually know what I want to do with this chapter o_o AMAZING, I KNOW WHAT I'M DOING. Here goes nothin'!**

_Ah, the hunting fields.. my favorite place of all. All the monsters... oh the monsters.. oh the possibilites.. oh the items.. the exp.. the money.. oh I love the hunting fields._

That's what I was thinking as I walked into.. well, I'm sure you know. The hunting fields. Today, I wanted to work on getting as many mats (materials), money, and exp as possible, even though I've already got an almost full inventory and I'm level 12. I hoped to find a mid-level boss to take down, as I've heard of a monster called _The Great Boar Lord_. It's supposed to be an ultra-rare monster that might spawn when you kill a normal Boar, so I'm assuming that, if I find it, I'll get a lot of good stuff.

It's been two hours, and I still haven't found _The Great Boar Lord._ But that's okay, since I've got plenty of materials anyway. I managed to find a low-level _Black Crystal Golem,_ though, so I'll just get the _Black Crystal Gem_ that it dropped to someone and have them make me a new sword. So, I walk back to the town in hopes of finding someone with a high enough blacksmithing level to make me something.

I walk around aimlessly for about a half an hour, and then come across someone who directs me to someone who he thinks has a pretty decent blacksmithing level, so I go to him. His username is _Koi_. So I go to the player market _**(I know this wasn't in the anime, I'm just adding it for the sake of the story)**_, and then the Services area, where they have people using their skills for money, such as Blacksmithing. Eventually, I manage to find Koi.

"Hello," I say to him. "Your name is Koi, right?"

"Yes," he responded. "Where did you hear about me, and what do you need?"

That was kind of rude.

"Well, somebody told me you were pretty good with the blacksmithing ski-"

He cut me off by grabbing my arm and dragging me off to a corner where nobody else was.

"Don't talk about that stuff where everyone can hear you!" he whispered. I'll admit, I've never been more confused in my life.

"What are you talking about?" I asked. "Isn't blacksmithing kind of.. well, normal?"

"Well, yes, but I'm not," he responded. "You see, I was in the beta test, and somehow, my blacksmithing skill level got transferred over to my new account. Don't ask how or why, because I don't know, but I'm not exactly going to go reporting it to an admin either. And you'd better not either, or I'll rip your heart out and feed it to my battle pets."

"Well, I wasn't planning on it in the first place, but okay, whatever," I said

"So what do you need from me?"

"Well, I found something that seems like it'd make a good weapon, and I was wondering if you could make one for me. How much would it cost?"

"Depends, it really all depends. From size and shape to whether or not it has a scratch on it, it really truly all depends. Show the item to me."

I went into my inventory and clicked on _Hold Item_. A little special effect showed above my hand, and then the crystal appeared and fell into it.

"It's named _Black Crystal Gem. _I got it from a level 6 _Black Crystal Golem _that showed up out of nowhere in the middle of the hunting field." I said.

"This," he said, "Is _so _weird. _Black Crystal Golem_s aren't supposed to show up until floor five, and their minimum level is supposed to be 20. And even then, they're supposed to be really rare."

"Weird.." I responded. "Anyway, can you make me a weapon out of it?"

"Well, yes, and no." he said. "This can make a really nice shortsword called _Blade of the Black Shadows_, but you can't make it without another item called _Black Necklace. _Don't ask, I don't know why. Anyway, it's a quest reward on floor three. What level are you?"

"I'm level 16," I responded. "and a half."

He chuckled. "You sound like a little kid, specifying 'a half.'"

"A half a level makes all the difference in the world in this one."

"True," he said. "Anyway, you should be able to head up to floor three. You know how to do that?"

"No. In fact, I didn't even know we could go up to the next levels until the boss on the current one was defeated."

"Well, that's not true. You can go to any floor in the game at any given time, but you can't fight the boss there until the previous floor's boss has also been defeated."

"So how do I get to the floor in the first place?"

"You need a telportation rune."

"Can you make me one?"

"It can only be made by someone with a good tailoring and blacksmithing skill. Take a look at me. Do I look like a tailor?"

He certainly didn't. He had green eyes and black hair. He was a bit taller than me and had no visible weapon equipped. He was wairing mostly starting equipment; _Casual Black Shirt, Casual Jeans, _and a _Blacksmithing Apron. _It was black. Go figure.

"I suppose you don't look like a tailor. Anyway, thanks for the help. I'll be back in a bit when I get the necklace."

"Hey, wait, before you go, accept this trade."

When the trade request came up, I accepted, as he had asked. I automatically pressed _Ready to Trade, _assuming he meant to give the items to me for free. He didn't even flinch, so I took that as a sign that I was right. He put something that looked like a leather bag up, and pressed the button to finish the trade.

"Enjoy. See you later."

"Thanks. Bye."

I opened the item from my inventory to find 500 Col and a note that said:

_It's dangerous to go alone! Take this!_

_That'll help you pay for your rune. Bye!_

Well then. That was nice.


End file.
